not eating enough?

[sillysmile]

My 20m DD has always been a grazer, eating lots of TINY portions of food throughout the day. I finally decided to track her intake, and today it was just over 800 calories (this includes milk and formula, which accounted for half of the calories). This was on a typical day, and seems to be substantially lower than what is recommended (~1300 calories). I have been concerned about her tiny meals for a while, but was surprised by how big the discrepancy was.

She hasn't gained ANY weight since she was 12 months, but granted she was a huge 12 month old (29+ lbs). Over the past 8 months she's been hovering between 28-29 lbs. She is very tall for her age (> 95%), and generally very active throughout the day.

Our pedi and pretty much everyone else we have talked to has just said to cut back on the milk and formula, which we have done gradually but substantially over the past 8 months (~50%), but it really doesn't seem to be increasing her appetite for solids much and results in a crankier kid.

Anyone with similar experiences or suggestions? Thanks in advance!

[strmis]

Just thought id keep an eye on this thread. Sounds familiar

[JBaxter]

Jack is the same way he keeps getting taller but really the kid doesnt eat much. He is almost 2 and about 29lbs but is 36in tall. He will not even drink large amounmts at a time. He is healthy and I guess its his eating pattern. Ive taking to making a full fat yogurt smoothie w/ whole milk and 2 bananas for breakfast ( takes him to almost lunch to finish it.

DS2 was the same way he weighed 22lb10 at 6 months and 27lbs at 2yrs.

[Okapi]

So first of all, somewhere on here there's a tribe called "Parents of Small/Skinny Babies," or something like that. Plenty of people are/have been in the same situation! Including us.

DD (33 months, if I'm counting correctly) has only in the past month or so started actually eating what I would consider a decent amount. Prior to that, it was LIGHT grazing (a lot of which she would end up spitting out after chewing, rather then swallowing) and milk. We gave her a variety of milks, hid healthy oils in either the milks or what food she would eat, anything to get a few extra calories in her. She went from practically skeletal at 18/20 months (at which point her ped, who is NOT the worrying type at all was worried about FTT since she hadn't gained in a while) to sturdy, even chubby before growth spurts. Some kids do have different builds, but it was clear to us once our DD started getting more calories that her body needed them.

We (well, mostly DH, since he had coworkers to discuss it with!) also heard a lot of the "well, stop giving her milk all the time!" but it just didn't sit right with us. For us, it was more important that she get the calories/nutrition she needed then that she eat solid food at the "right" time. Now she will actually say "I'm hungry, I want FOOD," and it's great to hear.

I will say that DH remembers being a child and having trouble swallowing things and his father would make an issue of it, which led to anxiety, which made it even harder, so we were very conscious of not pushing her. And DD was tiny from birth (4lb 6oz, under 4 when we brought her home) because she hadn't gotten nutrients/etc she needed from me her last few weeks in, so I'm sure that affected the way we looked at it, as well. Also, we had zero concerns about her development/milestones otherwise, so we weren't too worried about underlying causes, though if the adding calories hadn't helped, or the non eating had continued much past 3, we might have been more so.

BTW, here's this link to the thread I mentioned: Small/Skinny Babies Tribe.

[crunchy_mommy]

DS does this too, I don't have time to write right now (off to dinner) but I'm subbing!

[crunchy_mommy]

OK so today so far DS has eaten: 5 bites of hummus on veggie crackers, 1/2 a plum, 1/4 of a peach, ~10 bites of veggies with rice & BBQ sauce, & 1 banana. He'll probably have a teaspoon or two of PB or almond butter & maybe some more fruit before bed. That just seems like so little food... maybe top of the day at 300 calories if that.

He does nurse frequently still but I just feel like he should be eating so much more. He will eat a great variety of food (though he's quite partial to fruit most days) but he eats just little tiny bites, sometimes he'll just have one or two bites of something & that's it, or several bites & chew it up then spit it out.

He is 19mos, ~24lbs & 31" or so. He's not skinny, he's average, but I'd love for him to eat a little more food (and maybe nurse just a little less???) but I don't think taking away nursing sessions would actually get him to eat any more.

Interestingly, if we're out with a bunch of other little kids, he will eat a ton -- he'll eat all his food & ask for more AND finish all the other kids' food too!! But when we're home, I can't even get him to eat breakfast (he does all his eating in the evening -- which is also when he does the bulk of his nursing).

[sillysmile]

Thanks for the replies, everyone. It's very reassuring to know that others have similar issues.

Okapi, thanks for pointing me to the skinny babies tribe. It's good to hear that your grazer finally started eating more

crunchy mommy, that actually sounds like a pretty large volume of food compared to what my DD will eat! She hardly ever touches fruit unless it is freeze-dried or dried. She recently started biting grapes and spitting them back out, but that's about as far as she gets with fresh fruit so far

[shnitzel]

Do you peel her fruit?
DD spits out peels, although she does eat the rest of the fruit. Most of the time when she eats grapes she spits most of it because she cannot chew or doesn't like the texture of the peels. Perhaps that is why she doesn't like fruit at all.

[crunchy_mommy]

Originally Posted by sillysmile

crunchy mommy, that actually sounds like a pretty large volume of food compared to what my DD will eat! She hardly ever touches fruit unless it is freeze-dried or dried. She recently started biting grapes and spitting them back out, but that's about as far as she gets with fresh fruit so far

Wow really? I don't feel like it's a lot!! And that was on a big-meal day, usually he eats less than that! Interesting!

Have you experimented with texture/sizes? DS loves to just take a piece of fruit & eat it like an apple -- but then he gets all skin at the beginning, which he just spits out, so we try to eat/peel some of the skin off first (though he's impatient so that doesn't always happen!) He also likes large cubes & wedges, and will eat a lot more if the fruit is very ripe. I don't think he'd even TOUCH the fruit if it was cut bite-size, and if it isn't too ripe he'll only eat a bite (but I know some kids actually prefer the hard/crunchy less-ripe fruit!)

ETA - can you post examples of what she WILL eat?

[jstpmm]

I have the same problem with my older DSD. I feel like meal time is a constant battle. I always hated being forced to sit at the table when I was yonger until I finished my food but I feel like it's the only thing we can do. Yesterday she had a small bowl of cereal, a few bites of rice, a piece of cut up chicken or 2, and half a squared slice of pizza. My 2 year old DSD eats more than she does most days.

She hasn't gained any weight from her 3-4 year checkup. Wasn't even in the percentile for weight and is at the top percentile for height. It can't be to bad because she does fit her 4T clothing but she's thinned out so much over this past year.